new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Benjamin Slade]

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I would like to add a "module" to Emacs for converting from Gregorian dates
into traditional Indian/Hindu dates (Bikrama Samvat), and, perhaps more
importantly, for calculating Hindu holidays.

I found a very nice set of functions for doing so implemented in Common Lisp
in *Deshow, Nachum and Reingold, Edward M. 2008. _Calendrical Calculations_.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn*. I was wondering if this
perhaps has already been implemented (given that Reingold developed the
original calendar calculations for Emacs).

If not: What is the best way of using this code in Emacs? I know that Emacs
Lisp is different from Common Lisp - and I also know that there is/are
package(s?) for using Common Lisp within Emacs.

What I don't know is:
(1) Can this code just be converted into Emacs Lisp? Or are there bits of it
which would require Common Lisp?

[Right now it doesn't work - I know that Emacs Lisp requires "defconst"
rather than "defconstant", but even changing that, I get a "condition-case:
Symbol's value as variable is void: 279457/1080000" error for:

 (defconst hindu-sidereal-year
  ;; TYPE rational
  ;; Mean length of Hindu sidereal year.
  (+ 365 279457/1080000))

And changing the definition to (+ 365 (/ 1080000 279457)) it seems just to
round.]

(2) Or else, if it is necessary, how to use Common Lisp packages in Emacs.

I have transcribed the code here:
http://www.jnanam.net/emacs/hindu-calendar.el [there are probably typos in
it yet].

I'm, obviously, not really a Lisp coder, but I am looking for some pointers
for how to get this code working within Emacs.

thanks,
  --Ben
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Slade
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
[ http://www.jnanam.net/slade/ ]

Stæfcræft & Vyākaraṇa (lingblog) - http://staefcraeft.blogspot.com
The Babbage Files (techblog) - http://babbagefiles.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  *प*रो ऽक्ष॑का*मा* हि *दे*वाः
    'The gods love the obscure.' (Śatapathabrāmaṇa 6.1.1.2)

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Re: new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Benjamin Slade]

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Thanks, Paul. I wrote to Ed Reingold a few days ago asking him about this
issue, but I haven't heard back from him.

A general question: do you have any sense for whether these sorts of
calculations could be handled by Emacs Lisp, or whether they require Common
Lisp?

I would be interested in coding this up from scratch in the event that the
Deshow/Reingold functions can't be incorporated directly, though given my
very rudimentary understanding of Lisp (both Emacs and Common), I imagine
this would take some time (#damnitjimimalinguistnotalispcoder).

cheers,
  --Ben

On 13 June 2011 11:53, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

> On 06/13/11 09:40, Benjamin Slade wrote:
> > I found a very nice set of functions for doing so implemented in Common
> Lisp
> > in *Deshow, Nachum and Reingold, Edward M. 2008. _Calendrical
> Calculations_.
> > New York: Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn*. I was wondering if this
> > perhaps has already been implemented (given that Reingold developed the
> > original calendar calculations for Emacs).
>
> I expect the answer is that it hasn't been.  And we can't simply
> incorporate
> the copyrighted code from the book into Emacs without having copyright
> permission
> from the authors.  However, if you could code the ideas up from scratch,
> without
> copying the book's code, that would be a nice addition to Emacs.  Another
> possibility
> is that you could contact Ed Reingold and ask him whether he'd be willing
> to
> donate the code; perhaps if enough people ask, he'll change his mind.
>



-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Slade
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
[ http://www.jnanam.net/slade/ ]

Stæfcræft & Vyākaraṇa (lingblog) - http://staefcraeft.blogspot.com
The Babbage Files (techblog) - http://babbagefiles.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  *प*रो ऽक्ष॑का*मा* हि *दे*वाः
    'The gods love the obscure.' (Śatapathabrāmaṇa 6.1.1.2)

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Re: new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Paul Eggert]

On 06/13/11 10:00, Benjamin Slade wrote:
> A general question: do you have any sense for whether these sorts of
> calculations could be handled by Emacs Lisp, or whether they require Common
> Lisp?

I'm sure Emacs Lisp is up to doing them.  There may be some issues with
large integers but they can be handled.  As you suspect, though, it
will take a bit of hacking to do it right.

Re: new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Edward Reingold]

Sorry, the code in our book is NOT in the public domain and cannot be
used in Emacs.

On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Benjamin Slade <slade@jnanam.net> wrote:
> I would like to add a "module" to Emacs for converting from Gregorian dates
> into traditional Indian/Hindu dates (Bikrama Samvat), and, perhaps more
> importantly, for calculating Hindu holidays.
>
> I found a very nice set of functions for doing so implemented in Common Lisp
> in *Deshow, Nachum and Reingold, Edward M. 2008. _Calendrical Calculations_.
> New York: Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn*. I was wondering if this
> perhaps has already been implemented (given that Reingold developed the
> original calendar calculations for Emacs).
>
> If not: What is the best way of using this code in Emacs? I know that Emacs
> Lisp is different from Common Lisp - and I also know that there is/are
> package(s?) for using Common Lisp within Emacs.
>
> What I don't know is:
> (1) Can this code just be converted into Emacs Lisp? Or are there bits of it
> which would require Common Lisp?
>
> [Right now it doesn't work - I know that Emacs Lisp requires "defconst"
> rather than "defconstant", but even changing that, I get a "condition-case:
> Symbol's value as variable is void: 279457/1080000" error for:
>
>  (defconst hindu-sidereal-year
>   ;; TYPE rational
>   ;; Mean length of Hindu sidereal year.
>   (+ 365 279457/1080000))
>
> And changing the definition to (+ 365 (/ 1080000 279457)) it seems just to
> round.]
>
> (2) Or else, if it is necessary, how to use Common Lisp packages in Emacs.
>
> I have transcribed the code here:
> http://www.jnanam.net/emacs/hindu-calendar.el [there are probably typos in
> it yet].
>
> I'm, obviously, not really a Lisp coder, but I am looking for some pointers
> for how to get this code working within Emacs.
>
> thanks,
>   --Ben
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Benjamin Slade
> Dept. of Linguistics
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> [ http://www.jnanam.net/slade/ ]
>
> Stæfcræft & Vyākaraṇa (lingblog) - http://staefcraeft.blogspot.com
> The Babbage Files (techblog) - http://babbagefiles.blogspot.com
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   परो ऽक्ष॑कामा हि देवाः
>     'The gods love the obscure.' (Śatapathabrāmaṇa 6.1.1.2)
>

Re: new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Richard Stallman]

I wonder what the point is in publishing code that people can't use.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin St
Boston MA 02110
USA
www.fsf.org, www.gnu.org
Skype: No way! That's nonfree (freedom-denying) software.
  Use free telephony http://directory.fsf.org/category/tel/

Re: new calendrical calculations - elisp - common lisp

[Chong Yidong]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

> I wonder what the point is in publishing code that people can't use.

Usually, it's to hit people up for money if they want to use the code
they'd read in the textbook (e.g. Numerical Recipes).